THE ORLOFF TROTTER. 40i 



adopted. On this point it must be admitted that it is an honest 

 name. 



The Hackney is a good horse for all the uses to which he is 

 adapted. He is short on his legs and stout, with a good share of 

 nervous energy. He is symmetrical, and, we might say, hand- 

 some, if we can use that word without any show of fine breeding, 

 for he is far short of the ideal blood horse. But he is not a sad- 

 dle horse, he is not a hunter, he is not a runner, and he is not a 

 trotter. As against these desirable and useful qualifications, he has 

 been bred and trained when in action to jerk up his limbs to the 

 highest point anatomically possible, and put them down again 

 with a thud at a point but little removed from where he started. 

 In this showy, undesirable action he exhausts his nervous energy, 

 pounding the earth without covering much of the distance. In this 

 excessive knee action every element of easy, graceful and rapid 

 progression is wanting. This fad will have its day and then along 

 with the barbarous excision of the caudal appendage they will 

 disappear together as they came, and we will know them no more 

 forever. 



There are two points in advocating the merits of the Hackney 

 with which every Englishman is thoroughly familiar and which 

 lie will call to your attention on the slightest provocation: (1) 

 Bellfounder was a Hackney and it was his blood that gave us the 

 greatest trotting sire that the world has ever produced. This is 

 the Englishman's estimate of Bellfounder when he has a Hackney 

 for sale, and especially if the prospective purchaser be an Ameri- 

 can. (2) He is descended from a long line of distinguished 

 trotters. To the first of these reiterated and parrot-like claims 

 an answer will be found in the chapter relating to that horse, 

 where his twenty-one years of stud service have been carefully 

 considered, and where he is shown to have been a monumental 

 failure. In the second claim there is some truth and we must 

 consider it very briefly. 



Of all the elements entering into the families of horses locally 

 and indefinitely called Norfolk Trotters, there were two that 

 might be looked upon as the founders Useful Cub and Shales 

 for they were more conspicuous and valuable than any others. 

 Mr. John Lawrence was not only a practical horseman, but he 

 was the most intelligent and reliable of all the writers on the 

 horse in the latter part of the last century. He was the only 

 one who gave any attention to the trotter and trotting affairs. 



